


Keep Training

by maggiedragon



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hockey, Drabble, M/M, Quarantine, Video & Computer Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25392937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maggiedragon/pseuds/maggiedragon
Summary: Quarantine drives everyone a little bit stir-crazy, and it turns out being good at hockey in real life doesn't translate to video games.(or, the quarantine drabble.)
Relationships: Credence Barebone/Original Percival Graves/Theseus Scamander
Comments: 7
Kudos: 12





	Keep Training

Percival did have a Playstation 4-- Credence had seen the sleek black box on the discreet floating shelf under his television-- but he wasn’t sure if he had seen his captain ever use it for its intended purpose. Mostly, they’d been using it as a glorified DVD player or a way to stream Netflix as the quarantine wore on. 

Coach Picquery and Mr. Lane, the owner of the Monarchs, had asked them to remain in town-- no one knew when the league would resume and if they would go directly to the playoffs. Percival had casually managed to mention that Credence didn’t have a permanent place to stay in the area, so unless the team wanted to be paying hotel bills for months, surely Barebone could billet with them. 

Newt absconding to the family ranch in Canada just before the border shut down had provoked the aforementioned request to _remain accessible to the team,_ so Theseus had closed up the house he’d shared with his brother and arrived in Graves’ apartment shortly thereafter. At first, Credence had thought it would make sense to get out of the city during a pandemic. There would be more space in the Scamanders’ suburban house, more green and more space to move, butTheseus had balefully muttered something about the only delivery being chain-restaurant pizza. That had been the end of the discussion. 

So it was the three of them in Percival’s one-bedroom apartment. The California King bed, although massive, was not actually big enough for three people. Picquery had said _don’t stop training_ , which meant piles of athletic gear and daily loads of laundry, and despite a nearly infinite supply of entertainment on Netflix, there was somehow nothing to watch. 

At least until Theseus came back in from getting the mail one day and held up a new package. 

“New entertainment,” he said, holding it up. 

Theseus’ voice was muffled under the mask secured over his mouth and nose. He opened the package-- another Blu-Ray?-- and tossed it onto the couch before to wash his hands. His mask was nearly neon purple with comically big pink lipstick lips on the front; Theseus had gone down a rabbit hole looking for masks the day the governor announced a universal masking order, laughed until he cried, and then ordered five. 

“Jesus, Tizz,” Percival said, emerging from the bedroom, still drying his hair from the shower. “You know the apparel companies are sending us Monarch masks, right? For free? In hopes one of us will wear them on Instagram?”

“Absolutely. And I’m choosing to wear this one,” Theseus said as he unhooked the mask behind his ears and dropped it into the plastic bag Percival had left out. “Go on and get it installed.” 

“You seriously bought _NHL 20_?” Percival asked, holding up the game with a Leafs player on the cover. Credence couldn’t make out who it was. Auston Matthews, maybe? 

“Picq told us we had to keep training, after all. And you have a perfectly good gaming system that you never use,” Theseus said. 

“I doubt this is what she meant,” Percival observed, but he installed the game anyway. 

The allure of _playing themselves_ was irresistible, so Credence supposed he shouldn’t be surprised when Theseus immediately went into season mode and selected the Macusa Monarchs. He was, however, a little disappointed to see the roster.

“Why am I still in the AHL?” 

“They might have taken the rosters from the beginning of the season?” Graves said and started to tab through the list of available players. “Yeah, I think that’s it. Septima’s still on the team.” 

“Aww, can we trade? Credence oughta be able to play himself.” 

“Let me see.” 

They could-- and Credence tried not to blanch at the reminder that Theseus and Percival both made easily ten times more than he did. His own salary was still more money than he could have ever imagined even four years ago. Sometimes it baffled him. How was he supposed to spend it all, especially when the team covered the bills for his gear, his hotel room when they traveled, even a lot of his meals during the season? It just built in his bank account, little numbers that he was still baffled by. 

_A time to reap and a time to sow,_ he reminded himself. He still cherished the book of his faith even if he’d spent years shedding his mother’s interpretations of it. Its words were still wise. Yes, his salary was more money than he had ever seen, but it was going to end. An injury, a concussion, simply getting too slow-- and then that salary would have to last. 

But he could worry about that later. Right now, trading Septima for Credence freed up a lot of their salary cap and Theseus immediately started to lobby for another trade. 

“Let’s get Hollis as a backup goalie,” he said, leaning over Grave’s shoulder to point at the TV. 

“You want _Hollis_? Queenie’s gonna be sad if she hears about that.” 

“C’mon, Hollis is a good dude. He comes to all the You Can Play events the team makes me do, marches in D.C.’s Pride Parade every year.” 

“Is he--” Credence started to ask, but he knew the answer already. Hollis wasn’t queer. If there had been another out player in the league, the NHL wouldn’t lean so heavily on Theseus to constantly carry the weight of representation. Theseus went to every You Can Play event. When the league offered rainbow jerseys, he always was the one called on to model them. To do the interviews. He was the the first and currently only out player in the National Hockey League. It wore Theseus out sometimes. Credence had heard the power forward fighting about it with Percival sometimes. 

It wasn’t the time to mention it, though. Instead, Credence just touched Percival’s knee. “C’mon, let Tizzy have Hollis. If he’s a good guy, he probably deserves better than the Bullets anyway.” 

“Fine,” Percival said and made the trade. “But I’m blaming you both if Queenie finds out.” 

They quickly found out that you couldn’t really play Seasons Mode as a group. It was meant to be single-player. Percival had suggested passing the controller back and forth as the game automatically made line changes. He would play when his small digital avatar was on the ice, as then hand it off to Credence or Theseus in turn. However, that idea only lasted until Percival dropped the controller reaching across the couch. By the time they’d dug the thing back out, they’d not only lost the face-off, but Oleksy had taken the puck and scored.

“Screw Seasons mode,” Theseus said and switched them to NHL Threes, which they could actually play as a co-op. “No one calls that many tripping penalties anyway.”

“You do realize those referees can’t actually hear you when you swear at the TV?” Credence teased, rewarded by Theseus’ mobile face lighting up in a grin.

“But they did stop calling tripping penalties after I yelled long enough.” 

That had been because Percival had gone into the settings and turned that penalty off, but Theseus’ cheeky grin was too beautiful to contradict.


End file.
